A Thousand Words - Chapter 1
Title: A Thousand Words
Pairing: Akame
Genre: Romance, Angst
Length: Chaptered; Chapter 1: 2037 words
Description: Love vanished with the flash, but the instilled memories would bring back their feelings...
( Prologue)
Three Months Later
Absentmindedly reaching for his coffee, he sat with his attention solely focused on the screen in front of him. There was no rest for the wicked and ‘Wicked’ was his middle name, he thought as he scanned his work for errors. He could settle for nothing less than perfection or at least perceived perfection.
Bringing the cup to his lips, he felt that the drink had gone cold. He had been at this for hours, typing and erasing, only to repeat the process. Sitting the cold, now disgusting, brew back down, he raised his arms up above his head and stretched. The accompany crunch told him he had been sitting too long and needed to move around a bit.
It was the perfect excuse to go and get fresh, hot coffee. With a quick save of his progress, progress that would probably end up erased by a few frantic taps of the backspace button, he rose, again stretching his arms up and over his head, twisting at the waist to relieve some of the tension he was sure in his back.
Kamenashi Kazuya, or as he preferred to be called, Kame made his way from the desk he had previously occupied and out into the living space of his apartment. Not taking the time to spare a look around, he quickly pulled on his boots, tucking the laces into the boot versus actually tying them. Slinging on his jacket and grabbing a cigarette for the walk, he set out for the nearby coffee shop.
Kame cursed his luck and himself for not grabbing his umbrella as soon as he reached the ground floor and looked out the lobby doors to see the down pour that seemed to be coming down beyond it. He wondered briefly if the doorman or concierge would have one he could borrow for the ten minutes it would take to get himself fresh coffee. He hated the hassle and decided to just make a run for it.
Pulling up his lapels on his jacket and ducking his head, Kame stepped out into the weather, the wind hitting him more than the actual rain. Pausing back under the awning, he lit his cigarette and took a puff before starting the journey toward the quaint little coffee shop on the corner.
As he made his way on the quick three minute walk, his thoughts were back on the work he had left upstairs, the lyrics to the song he was working on. The melody played in his head, and he tossed around a few options, puffing on his cigarette as he hummed softly. He ignored the rain, but let the beat drum itself into the melody, changing it, melding it into something different. Kame smiled as he walked the final paces to the shop.
Coming to get coffee was definitely worth it, he thought as he opened the door, the bell above the jam tinkling, and stepped inside. The place was dead, a fact Kame attributed to the weather. Kame didn’t mind. It was actually preferable to the throng that sometimes made its way inside the small, cramped coffee shop.
When Kame had first started coming to the café a couple of months ago, he had been drawn to the fact that it boasted a lighter crowd than most. He could come without the mob of adolescent and pre-adolescent girls and enjoy a quiet cup while listening to his headphones in peace. It had been a novelty and a life saver. It had quickly become his favorite place to be.
Still all good things must come to some sort of end he figured. He remembered the day the carefree experience he had had here came crashing down. A wry smile played on his lips as he remembered the flash of the camera hitting his eyes as he had started to walk through the door. With that flash, the safe haven had vanished and slowly but surely the café had grown in business and the atmosphere diminished.
Kame knew it was just a part of his life. Pictures were worth a thousand words, and his photos were worth more than just words. He had just shrugged it off and still kept coming, albeit at odder hours and never to sit and enjoy anymore. He knew that the owners appreciated the fact that he was still coming. That was enough for him.
Sighing and shaking off the rain, he made his way to the counter. He offered up a friendly smile to the young girl behind it. She seemed new as Kame hadn’t seen her there before. He laughed at her nervousness and just grinned more at her. He gave her his order, a vanilla latte with an extra shot of expresso to go, three times before she actually acknowledged she had it. He sent her a wink and went to wait for it to be ready.
He sat at a table near the door, idly staring out at the rain. Try as he might, he couldn’t help be draw a parallel to a day three months prior. It made his heart hurt thinking about that day, the day he had walked away from the person who had meant the most to him. It was the day that his heart had been broken. He was still putting the pieces back together.
The rain on the window thrummed against the window and had him drifting back into the memory. He hated that he had cried that day, tears he hated that he even felt the need to cry. He hated the fact that the other’s tears hadn’t fallen, that they had stayed firmly in his eyes. He hated more the words that had been spoken, none of them his own. He hated the fact that that he hadn’t said anything, even though he knew no words could have described his feelings.
A cup was placed on his table by the shy young girl from behind the counter. It shook him from his thoughts, and again Kame graced her with a smile. She seemed to have something to say, judging from the way she shifted from foot to foot and played with her nail. Kame waited patiently, knowing if he spoke it would delay her further.
“Can I please get a picture?” she asked shyly.
Kame just laughed softly and nodded. It wasn’t an uncommon request, but it was uncommon that Kame granted it. The girl just seemed quite nervous, and he found that endearing. He wasn’t in a real big rush so he could spare the time to snap a quick photo.
The girl squealed, again bringing a light laugh from Kame. He just smiled brightly for the camera as she leaned down closer towards him. She maintained a distance like she was scared or just super nervous. Kame decided to give her a once in a lifetime kind of picture and pulled her closer, placing his lips on her cheek.
Click.
The camera flashed and captured the unforgettable moment. Kame thought the girl would pass out from shock. She seemed to turn as white as a ghost. He just winked and picked up his coffee, standing and shuffling past her. He made his way out of the shop, wondering how long she would stay frozen. He briefly wondered how long it would take that picture to appear on the internet.
Pictures of celebrities were a hot commodity on the internet as well as in tabloids and splashed across the television screen on those late night junk news shows. He knew that a picture of him kissing a girl would be prime real estate on those kinds of mediums. He just wryly thought, If only they knew the truth…
Kame hated those types of media outlets. He hoped the girl kept her treasure to herself and not the media. Still even if she didn’t, Kame just figured that was life. He had experienced enough of it and of them to last his lifetime.
Kame sprinted back into his building and waved at the doorman as he went to the elevator. The entire ride back up to his floor, he couldn’t help but continue to think about the photo and how it would more than likely end up in the public eye. He, and other celebs, couldn’t help the fact that people were interested in their lives, and that meant that privacy was a hard thing to come by. Kame had found a relative sense of privacy in his life, more so now than three months ago.
The thoughts of photos and thoughts of the past had Kame struggling to breathe. He panted against the onslaught of emotions. He couldn’t stop the pain nor the memory of the day he saw the photo and the headlines that brought his world crashing down. It had ended his ignorant bliss, shattering his illusion of his world.
It had been an off day for Kame already that day. He had been feeling out of it. Music wasn’t coming to him, and that wasn’t something had ever happened in the past. He had known that it was because he hadn’t been feeling quite as happy as usually in the other parts of his life, but he had figured that it was just a rough patch, both musically and otherwise. He had decided to go and get a cup of coffee. Little did he know as he pulled his beanie down further over his forehead, shadowing his eyes and making it more difficult to be spotted, that that trip would be his walk to the edge of the cliff.
Kame had made the quick jaunt to the coffee shop in front of the studio. He had ordered and was waiting for the barista to finish making it. He still cursed himself for looking down at the rags he hated so much. There on the front page had been a picture that caught his eye, him. Kame remembered being shocked to see the photo and picking up the paper to look at it closer.
The headline had jumped out at him more so than the picture as he picked it up. It had read, “Akanashi Jin and Kuroki Meisa married, expecting baby.” It had read like a foreign language to his brain at the time, taking extra time to process the simplest of words found in the sparsely written title. He couldn’t process it still for a second when he had read it again. Finally on the third read, Kame had a grasp on the context, but still was stunned. He wouldn’t and couldn’t believe it.
He had flipped open to the page the magazine had indicated the story was on and began analyzing, knowing it was all a sham for reasons the paper had no clue about. He hadn’t really been expecting to find a written statement from both of them as well as pictures of them smiling and kissing happily for the camera. His heart had fallen to the floor quicker than the paper as his hands had relaxed, releasing it in shock.
Kame still felt the shock of it all. There was an English saying that had appropriately ran through his mind then and now in reference to the photos then as well as the one he had just taken with the girl from the coffee shop. “A picture is worth a thousand words…” Kame knew exactly how true those words were.
With a resigned sigh, Kame pushed himself out of the memories and off the wall of the elevator. His steps were dogged by the feelings still lingering, but he resolved that he had moved on. He was happy with his life. He was fine, and life was perfectly okay as well.
He felt better as he walked through his apartment door. This was his haven, and he immediately felt peace wash over him. Tossing his house key in the dish near the door, beside the couch, Kame fished out his wallet and tossed it on table beside the dish. As he headed for the studio and back to the task of making perfection, he didn’t notice the fact that his wallet had flipped open revealing a photo...
( Chapter 2)